


Run boy run (running is a victory)

by maharetr



Series: Imagine Bucky - maharetr post [14]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Bucky Barnes Recovering, Bucky will fuck you up, Ficlet, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, Short, activation words
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28568976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maharetr/pseuds/maharetr
Summary: The attack, when it comes, is not something Bucky can brace for.“Longing!” The shout is from the dark ahead and in badly-pronounced Russian, but it’s enough. “Rusted!”
Series: Imagine Bucky - maharetr post [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/255532
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Run boy run (running is a victory)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the Woodkid's song, 'Run boy run'
> 
> Written for the [Imagine Bucky tumblr](imaginebucky.tumblr.com), based on the anon prompt: "Imagine Bucky facing down a HYDRA agent in the field who tries to 'activate' him. He's rattling off the words...but can't remember 'freight car'. He's terrified." Originally posted [here](https://imaginebucky.tumblr.com/post/147540296676/imagine-bucky-facing-down-a-hydra-agent-in-the) on 17 July 2016.

They’ve been wending their way quietly across Europe, following Bucky’s memories. Sometimes they’re disrupting Hydra safe houses, sometimes they’re pulling weapons caches out of circulation. This week they’re in Bulgaria, following intel and one of Bucky’s hunches.

Tonight, he’s taking the long way home - it’s a warm, clear night, and sometimes letting his feet take over leads to useful things. Tonight, for the first time, a useful thing has come to him.

The guy’s been following Bucky for several blocks. He’s pretty good - Bucky’s even lost sight of him once or twice - but at no point has the guy appeared to comm in, and Bucky can’t see anyone ahead closing in for an ambush. This guy’s _alone_ , and Bucky can’t decide if that’s insanity or brilliance. It’s interesting enough that he’s more curious than pissed, and he settles into surveillance mode himself, leading whoever this guy is on a meandering route away from the bustling civilian cafes and into the darker, shuttered business district.

The guy sensibly drops back, and then vanishes from view all together. Bucky palms his knife and flexes his plated hand, scanning rooftops and fire escapes, watching intently.

The attack, when it comes, is not something he can brace for.

“Longing!” The shout is from the dark ahead and in badly-pronounced Russian, but it’s enough. “Rusted!”

The pull awakens deep inside his mind. Bucky lunges forward, pushing into a run, trying to cover enough ground before -

“Seventeen! Daybreak! Furnace!”

 _Comply_ , the pull whispers, and loosens his grip on his blade for him. 

_Fuck_. _That_. Bucky growls deep in his throat, lengthening his stride even as he drops the knife. 

“Nine! B-Benign! H-homecoming…” the guy gasps, but Bucky’s got a lock on him in the shadows of that doorway, and momentum carries him through -

“ _One_ ,” the guy squeals, but Bucky’s on him, slamming him into the door. The wood holds, just. Bucky presses his metal hand against the guy’s throat, whose mouth opens in a silent, useless gasp. Bucky bides his time, flexing his free hand, stamping the heels of his boots against the concrete, maintaining sensation and control.

 _It’s my fucking body_ , he thinks. _My fucking mind_. And it is, still. His heart is pounding too hard, and in a little he’s going to have to hole up somewhere and shake and shake. But right now…

The guy’s face is rapidly going purple. Bucky eases his hand off, just enough. The guy whoops in a breath, clutching Bucky’s wrist for balance. Bucky lets him. The guy is young, but that doesn’t always mean much in the Hydra ranks. His mouth is working desperately: “F-Fruh…,” he rasps. “Oh god, _please_.”

“Freight car,” Bucky says, deliberately, and the programming doesn’t know what to do with that, with a code word from his own mouth. The last of the tug dissipates. Bucky smiles. The guy squeezes his eyes closed in terror.

“Were you there?” Bucky asks, conversationally enough that the guy opens his eyes in confusion. “Were you there when they wiped me?” The guy whimpers. “See, I don’t remember much of that, obviously. I don’t know who was directly involved in torturing me, or n –”

“ _No_ , I wasn’t there I just saw the book I read the page, I thought, I thought I could … oh god.”

“What were you going to _do_ with me?”

The guy closes his eyes again.

“You were going to bring me in yourself, weren’t you? You were going to be a hero.” It’s Bucky’s turn to close his eyes and grimace. He’s so fucking tired of this. “Do you know what Hydra _does_ to fuck-ups like you?”

The guy starts to cry; he knows.

Bucky sighs. “Where were you going to take me? Is there a Hydra cell nearby?”

“Take - ? _What_ -” The guy’s eyes fly open again, huge. “Christ, I can’t tell you that.”

“You can,” Bucky says mildly. “If you tell me everything about this cell, I’ll tell everyone I tortured it out of you and dismembered your body for the rats.” He gives the guy a minute to process this. “If you’re halfway decent, and a bit lucky, Hydra might not even look for you.”

The guy talks.


End file.
